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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



would dry sooner in the stook than lying flat on the 

 ground when the weather broke up, and sustain less harm 

 so long as the weather continued wet, if in sufficiently 

 small sheaves, loosely tied and properly stocked. Lying 

 corn when thus cut wet is not unfrequently the first that is 

 ready for the stack-yard. All depends upon how the work is 

 done. 



With regard to the practice of leaving corn abroad in the 

 swath to dry when cut wet with the scythe or reaping ma- 

 chine, and in the open sheaf when cut with the reaping hook 

 or sickle, it is not approved of aa a general rule, and ouly fol- 

 lowed in a very few exceptionary cases. We have tried it, 

 but were never successful, having always found the small 

 loosely-tied sheaf when properly stooked sooner dry than the 

 corn in eitiier of the other two cases, and less liable to malt 

 and to lose colour. Id short, we always made it a rule to 

 keep the stooking close up to the cutting, and this was the 

 general one followed in the above four counties, and, we may 

 add, throughout the North generally. 



Of the different implements for cutting corn in a wet season 

 the scythe and the reaping machine are the best, and the 

 reaping hook and sickle the worst. The reason is this : when 

 cut with (he former two the straw is more loose, and the ears 

 of grain less compressed together in a bunch, so that three 

 advantages are thereby gained : first, the sheaves in the stook 

 form a more acute angle where they meet at the top, thus car- 

 rying off raiu better from the ears ; second, the air and drying 

 winds get better through the sheaves ; and third, the ears are 

 leas liable to sustain injury from malting and growing toge- 

 ther. Altogether, the balance is so much in favour of the 

 scythe and reaping machine, that we would not have allowed 

 Irish or Highland reapers to have cut our crops in a wet sea- 

 son if they would have done the work for nothing. When 

 threaving or cutting at so much the stook of 8, 10, 12, or 14 

 sheaves to the stook, as agreed upon, then they make the 

 sheaves small to your pleasure, and this is the best plan to 

 employ in wet seasons ; but even then the stooks cut with 

 the scythe will be in the stackyard before those cut with the 

 reaping hook and sickle. But we would never attempt cutting 

 corn by the acre with Irish reapers in wet seasons, for the 

 large sheaves they make would often have to be spread out 

 and dried before they could possibly get safe to the stackyard. 

 The proper stooking of corn, and the keeping up of the 

 stooks so as to admit of the free circulation of the atmosphere, 

 and the process of drying for stacking, are perhaps the most 

 important of all the operations of a wet harvest. No better 

 proof need be advanced in support of this than the fact that 

 nine-tenths of all the loss sustained arise from mismanage- 

 ment in this department. Indeed, the difference between good 

 and bad stooking is so great as hardly to be credited. It is 

 very conspicuous however, and familiar to millers and corn- 

 merchants when the samples begin to appear in the market. 



Wheat, barley, and oats are each loosely tied up in small 

 sheaves, and stooked. We never once stacked barley and 

 oats loose, like hay, as we have done in England. In fine, 

 dry seasons, the practice mighf succeed, but we never ran 

 the risk ; while in wet seasons it would be certain ruin to 

 both corn and fodder— the food of man and beast. Both 

 are carefully stooked, the same as wheat. 



The number of sheaves in a stook is generally regulated 

 by their length, the maxim in a wet season being, the fewer 

 the better. It takes a certain number, however, to give 

 stability to the stook in rongh weather. If of ordinary 

 length, and cut with the scythe, we generally made them of 

 eight sheaves— four on each side — and ten when the straw 

 was long. When cut with the reaping-hook and sickle, two 

 hood-sheaves extra to each stook, and sometimes three 

 hooils are added. In dry seasons twelve and fourteen 

 sheaves are common numbers. 



There are various other modes of setting the sheaves in 

 wet seasons, such as one sheaf tied close at the top, and 

 spread out at the bottom, like a cone; or three, four, or fiive 

 sheaves in a circular form, the tops all meeting together in 

 a point, with or without a single hood-sheaf: but they are 

 not so well adapted for our southern provinces, where the 

 ear end of the sheaf is thicker, especially when cut with the 

 hook or sickle. 



We may take it for granted that all know what a hooded 

 stook means, although seldom or ever seen in some of our 

 southern provinces ; but it will hardly be gredited, when we 



aflflrm that not one in twenty in the North, where hooded 



stooks are common, can put on a hood-sheaf! A well- 

 hooded stook will stand a rough storm, and defend itself 

 against a long continuance of bad weather ; and certainly 

 few sights are more pleasing to the eye of a farmer, in a 

 rainy harvest-day, than a field of fine corn thus stooked, and 

 safe from harm. We have often seen them, both in early 

 and late harvests, standing in a pelting rain to-day, and 

 carted dry to the stackyard to-morrow, the hood-sheaves 

 only being left behind. If the corn is cut dry, and pro- 

 perly stooked and hooded, it will make for stacking in 

 not very favourable weather, and be ready for carrying 

 whenever it breaks up ; but if the hood-sheaves are badly 

 put on, they are often worse than want, as they derange the 

 upright position of the other sheaves on which they rest, so 

 that they gather the rain and convey it into the stook, in- 

 stead of keeping it out and carrying it over, as in the case 

 of a well-thatched stack, the principle involved in both cases 

 being the same. So difficult is it to get the work properly 

 done, especially where the corn is cut with the scythe, that 

 the great bulk of the crop is now stooked without hood- 

 sheaves, hooding being generally confined to wheat reaped 

 with the hook and sickle. And we may here add that wheat 

 and rye are more easily hooded so as to carry off rain than 

 barley and oats, for the very same reason that their straw 

 makes better thatch for stacks. 



It is a common saying that " a good bandster — one who 

 can set a stook, and put on the hood-sheaves properly — is 

 worth his weight in gold, in a bad harvest ;" and the prac- 

 tice of appointing select hands for stooking only is he- 

 coming common, and, for many reasons, merits special con- 

 sideiation in a season hke the present, when so much de- 

 pends upon artistic skill and manipulation in this branch 

 of harvest operations. As in all other subdivisions of 

 labour, it requires a peculiar talent, and a certain amount 

 of experience, to approximate the standard of perfection 

 which a wet season requires ; and wherever that talent is 

 found, it is the duty of all interested to appreciate in a 

 practical manner its sterling value. 



In wet weather " the stooks" require continual attention 

 to keep them standing right, The extra amount of labour 

 is often very great. This arises, first from the increase of 

 weight, and consequent force of gravitation that takes place 

 when the sheaves get wet, so that if they are not set properly 

 at first, this force continually acting, diverges or sways them 

 farther and farther from their proper position, so that in a 

 night's time they not unfrequently are found lying almost 

 flat to the ground ; and second from the smallness of the 

 sheaves, and the least possible number of them in the stook 

 to secure stability; but whatever may be the amount of 

 labour and expense, the sheaves must be kept erect and in 

 position, 



Again, it frequently occurs after a long continuance of 

 rain that the ground gets wet under the buts of the sheaves, 

 and that the sheaves themselves get so closely set together 

 as greatly to retard the process of drying when the weather 

 breaks up. In such cases, when it does break up, all hands 

 are set to shift the stooks on to the dry ground, resetting 

 them so as to let in the draught, but to keep out the rain 

 should it fall before they are fit for carrying ; and not un- 

 frequently the sheaves have to be opened, spread out, dried, 

 and rebound before they can be stooked on dry ground, 

 especially when they are made large and tied tight. The ob- 

 ject of small loosely-tied sheaves, is to avoid this operation 

 of spreading out and drying, for when the sheaves are large, 

 and tied tight, they swell with the amount of rain ab- 

 sorbed to such a degree, becoming so hai'd as to render 

 drying in the sheaf impossible. 



A similar amount of extra work is experienced in the car- 

 rying as that noticed in the cutting and stooking, every 

 sheaf having, for the most part, to be examined before it is 

 taken to the stack-yard. This arises from the outside 

 sheaves being dry and fit for carrying before the otliers, so 

 that their removal not only secures a portion of the crop, 

 but allows what remains to dry sooner. As soon, therefore, 

 as a few sheaves from each stook can be got they are carried. 

 We have gone three, and sometimes as often as four times 

 through the stooks before the field was cleared. The far- 

 mer's maxim is to keep his teams going, and the men in 

 the stack-yard busy, and when this is done he takes it for 

 granted th«t the fields will eventually be clewed, »ind hia crop 



